Abhishek, Ash tie the knot

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan will be joined in holy matrimony today at Prateeksha. The time for the baraat is 4 pm, while the shubh mahurat for the wedding ceremony is 5.30 pm.The couple will have not one but two traditional rituals for their marriage.

Ash�s mother, Vrinda Rai, has brought traditional mango leaves from a district called Kasargod in Mangalore for a ritual from the bride�s side. Ash will wear a kanjeevaram saree for this particular ceremony.

The first ritual will begin with Bunt customs, a South Indian community to which Aishwarya belongs. However, a major chunk of the wedding and saat pheras will be according to North Indian customs.

It is also being said that Rituparno Ghosh (the Bengali director) and Jaya Bachchan have planned a Bengali style pooja that will be performed with Ash.

It�s a ritual done by the mother-in-law to welcome the bride into the family, by buying her a nova (a gold wrist band). Amitabh and the other men in the family will be wearing traditional pink turbans.

Abhishek will also have to endure a haldi ceremony that will be performed at Prateeksha, hours before the actual mahurat.

The Bachchans have also taken a last-minute decision to shelve fireworks from the wedding day celebrations. There reasons are Teji Bachchan being in a critical state in the hospital, and fireworks go against their idea of a low-key marriage.

Also, the baraat will proceed from Jalsa at 5 pm and reach Pratiksha at 5:30 pm. Fireworks won't make sense at that hour of the day."

The Bachchan family had suggested the idea of confetti and glitter which was scrapped by the event managers as they may annoy the well-dressed glitterati. Both of Aishwarya Rai�s high profile former boyfriends, Salman Khan and Viveik Oberoi, left the city earlier this week.

Salman has gone for personal work to Dubai apparently. His present girlfriend Katrina Kaif is also in Dubai shooting for Abbas Mastan�s Race.

Viveik Oberoi too headed to Dubai last week, after wrapping up the shoot for Sanjay Gupta�s Shootout at Lokhandwala.

He is currently visiting his ancestral home in Nampally (close to Chennai) and has been joined by his parents there.

The Oberoi family is expected to return to Mumbai on April 22, two days after Ash�s wedding, to celebrate the birthday of Viveik�s mother Yashodhara.

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